Friday, November 23, 2012

Injections and insights

Well, it's the day after Thanksgiving.  While some of you were out for black Friday shopping, I was at the orthopedic office receiving my third and final injection. Admit it, you're jealous, aren't you?  ;-)

Now I wait.  I can try running again in three weeks.  From past experience, it takes 5-6 weeks before running is okay though.  Also, in 6 weeks, if my knee is pain-free, this will have been considered a success and I'll have another 6-9 months before needing to head back for another round.  If, however, I'm still having knee pain, I need to go back and try something else.  It's worked well for me in the past, and the condition with my knee is progressing very slowly. I have confidence that it will be successful again.

My husband went for a run this afternoon and my son (home for the holiday weekend) went yesterday.  I suggested to my husband that he ask our son if he wanted to join him when he went out.  "I'm not a social runner" was his reply.  I realized that we are really different in that regard. In contrast to him, I am *totally* a social runner.  I would never pass up an opportunity to run with someone vs. running alone.  In fact, these days I actually find that I have a hard time getting motivated for a run when I don't have someone to run with.

How about you?  Are you a social runner or not?

I found it interesting that my son mentioned something about how running releases "happy chemicals" in your brain (he was relaying conversations he's had some somebody studying cognitive-neuroscience or something like that).  That's something I know all too well, and I've been missing those "happy chemicals" for a few weeks already.  *sigh*



Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Knee Update

Well, I had my appt with the orthopedic on Friday.  The good news is that the situation with my knee is progressing slowly.  It seems like the injections will work for me for quite some time (not at all close to needing surgery, for example).  The injections require insurance pre-authorization, which they were able to get by phone while I was there, so I was able to get started right away.  Two more appts one week a part and I'll be done for another 9-10 months or so.

The less good news is that I can't run during this time.  I need to wait at least 3 weeks after the last injection. From past experience, running may be uncomfortable until 6 weeks past the last injection.  But all-in-all, this really isn't a bad time to take a break anyway.

Not sure how much blogging I will do. I find that when I'm not running, I'm not all that interested in blogging. But I do expect to be back in full force when I'm back on the trail.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

October Summary

Numbers

  • One 10K race resulting in one 10K PR
  • Zero cycling.  Oops.
  • 23.5 miles fitness walking
  • 47.4 miles running
  • One early voting ballot completed
  • One post-running-group-season surprise baby shower attended. 
Thoughts
  • Meant to do a half-century in November, but haven't been on my bike since August so obviously it didn't happen
  • Happy that the 10K resulted in a personal best.  
  • I essentially stopped running for the remainder of October after the 10K race.  This is because I'm having problems with my knee and I'm trying not to make it worse.   
  • I'm only counting walking as "fitness walking" if it is at a brisk pace.  Any walking at a leisurely pace isn't getting included in my numbers at the moment.  This is mostly because my running is down and I'm more conscious of the walking that gets my heart rate up.  When my running goes back up again, I'll be more lax in what I include in the walking numbers.
  • Transitioning back to work after 8 weeks off was not a lot of fun.
Plans
  • Appt with the orthopedic this coming Friday.  Hoping to set up another series of Euflexxa injections beginning sometime around Thanksgiving.
  • Not sure how much running I can do over this next month, goal is to get in a decent amount of fitness walking, 1-2 miles each day at a brisk pace.  As it turns out, my dogs are great fitness walking partners; they never turn down the opportunity for a walk and are quite happy with a brisk pace. 
  • While I'm trying very hard to "do the right thing" and not run on a bad knee, I'm finding the lack of running is having a negative impact on my overall mood and stress level.  I ended up running easy on Friday and Saturday and it helped my mood a lot.  So maybe I need some short easy runs just to stay sane.  I hope I'm not the *only* one who feels like I'm teetering on the edge of sanity when I can't run.
[After Thought:  I've been trying to learn more about the physiology behind how running affects mood.  Apparently there is some research that it can affect levels of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, setotonin, and noraepinephine.  Interesting.  Very interesting indeed]